Some of the most disappointing-to-watch University of Massachusetts home games at the Mullins Center have come on warm nights with big crowds. The building would get so hot that the quality of play would suffer. There would be no crisp passes, seemingly slow skating, and the outcome would be survival of the fittest.

But that problem should go away this year as the compressor system has been retooled, and the humidity should will be less.

And that's good for UMass, which builds its program around speed on the big ice surface.